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Weather will probably be rainy this next Sunday. So, why not to try to be Belgian champion by participating in a fun one-day tournament: the quick games (Blitz) Belgian championship (15 minutes as time allowance).
This tournament is played with (reduced) handicap so that everyone has chance to win it !
Participation is free of charge, but only for members of the Belgian Go Federation.

Soon (May 23 to 27) a summit named "the Future of Go" will gather China’s top players and leading A.I. experts in Wuzhen (China).

The summit will feature a variety of game formats involving "AlphaGo" and top Chinese players:
1. “Pair Go” — A game where one Chinese pro will play against another...with both having AlphaGo as teammate!
2. “Team Go” — A game between AlphaGo and a five-players team of top pros working together
3. "Match Bot vs. the best (human) player" - A match Ke Jie vs AlphaGo (in 3 games)

On Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 May, 30 players have gathered for the second edition of the Pantin Tournament!

Lucas Neirynck, 5d managed to win all six rounds, earning the first place. Second came Brendan Guevel, 1d and third, with a slightly worse SOS, Olivier Drouot, 3d.
Congratulations to João Vieira, 13k who won five games out of six!

Along with the "European Pro Championship" (in February) and the "European Championship" (during the EG Congress, in July), the most (qualitatively) important European tournament of the year is the "Grand Slam Tournament", organized in Berlin.

The "Grand Slam" is a tournament making part of the European Grand Prix (EGP) which has existed now for a few years in Europe and which is sponsorised by CEGO (a Chinese firm). The EGP consists of a series of bonus point tournaments throughout the whole year in which the Grand Slam tournament counts for many points (I do not enter the details).

We report here the results of the 2017 (and 3rd) edition:

In the ¼ finals, there were still 2 amateurs left: Tanguy Le Calvé (FR, 6d) and Andreii Kravets (UA, 6d) while professional Catalin Taranu (RO, 5p) had already been eliminated by Alexander Dinerstein in the preliminary round.

In ¼ final,
Shikchin won against one of the 2 amateur, Le Calvé,
Dinerstein won against Jabarin,
Kachanovski against Surma and
Lisy against the other amateur, Kravets.

In semi-finals,
Dinerstein took the advantage on Shikchin,
and so did Kachanovski against Lisy.

The winner of the 3rd edition of the Grand Slam is…finally Kachanovski, who triumphed over Dinerstein in final, while Lisy won the small final for the 3rd place to a probably demotivated Shikchin...

Oscar Vazquez (4d), the young (14 years old) Spanish rising star, won the 2nd edition of the tournament of Liège.
Second was Belgian champion Lucas Neirynck (5d) and Thomas Connor (3d) ended as bronze medail.
All three ended with 3 victories (out of 4 rounds).

This WE, Lucas Neirynck (5d) conquered a new Belgian Champion title. He even remains unbeaten (9/9).
With this 7th title (!), he now equals the record of Jan Bogaerts, who had also been 7 times Belgian champion.

Also directly qualified for the 2018 finals are the 4th. François Gonze (4d) and the 5th. Nelis Vets (2d).

Surprisingly enough, Jan Ramon (4d) (5/9) will have to play the preliminaries rounds next year. And so will have Bram Vandenbon (2d), Joost Van Nieuwenhuizen (2k) and the 2 younsters, Louis Baudaux and Victor Schneider (both 6k).